More Than WE Know

I asked to host the Carnival of Small Business Issues because I wanted to provide a great reference for Women Entrepreneurs to find information and inspiration for their business.

This idea turned out to be an overwhelming success as I received and published more than 40 submissions for this week’s carnival - many more than in the past few weeks!

I am thrilled to share a lot of great content with you. I have read each and every one of these articles, some more than once, in an effort to sort them out and provide some context for them, rather than just a laundry list of sites.

I hope that the result is helpful and entertaining. Take some time to read the articles: visit with some old friends and make some new ones.

If you like what you read or even if you dislike what you read - leave comments for the authors, and for me - comments are what bloggers write for - so don’t be shy!!

It wasn’t easy but I did manage to find some favorites among all these fantastic articles. I would have liked to mark them all as my favorites - but that wouldn’t have been very helpful to you.

TOP PICKS

Operations - David B. Bohl presents Success: It’s all in the Follow-through posted at Slow Down Fast Today! David says, “I believe if we’re honest with ourselves, the reason we don’t follow through on so many things that would insure our success is that we’re so accustomed to not succeeding. We’re afraid of what might happen if we succeed.”

Marketing - Kenton Newby presents The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Starting Their Online Business posted at Kenton Newby.com

Misc. - Tupelo Kenyon presents Inspire Yourself on Purpose - Inspiration from Inside Out posted at Tupelo Kenyon dot com. Tupelo says, ” Here are twelve common sense reminders on how to inspire yourself. The word “inspire” derives from root words that mean “in spirit” or “spirit within.” Although there’s always another step to take, these points are a natural result of recognizing and identifying with this realization of who we are. (Enjoy soothing instrumental music as you read plus songs with lyrics related to each article - all free.) “

Don’t Miss these Stories:

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I love it when a story illustrates a business point. The following two stories are moving examples of customer service - one will leave you outraged and the other will leave your heart warmed. They both serve to remind us to keep our focus on building long-term relationships rather than short-term gains.

Joshua C. Karlin presents Missed Marketing Opportunities - Israel’s El Al Airlines & Your Business posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Charles H. Green presents Case Study #17, Trust-based Selling in the Real World posted at Trust Matters.

HR

There were a couple of unusual perspectives in the HR section this week - from high tech to low tech - Tim questions the use of technology to monitor employee activities and Alvaro reminds us of our innate ability to read emotions through our facial expressions.

Anita Campbell presents Big Brother in Small Business at SmallBizTrends. Anita says, “In this guest post, Tim Berry, the founder of Palo Alto Software, speaks about the folly of spying on your employees.”

Alvaro Fernandez presents Emotional Intelligence and Faces posted at SharpBrains. He says, “What do our faces say?”

FINANCE

Finance can be a rather dry subject. But these authors have made it informative and entertaining.

American Entrepreneur prevents some practical strategies for balancing your current job and a budding small business, David provides a step by step plan for setting up your own e-commerce site including a lot of helpful resources, and Christine makes e-commerce a reality by sharing her story as an international e-commerce business owner living in France and being impacted by the US exchange rate.

American Entrepreneur presents How to Start a Business without Quitting your Day Job posted at American Entrepreneurship.

David presents a Quick Guide to Create an e-commerce Website posted at Gaizer.com.

Christine presents The Exchange Rate - The Euro vs the Dollar - The Declining Dollar posted at Me, My Kid and Life. Christine says, “Living in France off the steadily declining dollar. One woman’s experience with earning an income online via US dollars while living in France and paying in euros. ”

MARKETING

Marketing was the largest section this week and there are a variety of perspectives.

Andrew outlines some timely holiday advice. Ed, Ian, James, Mark, Robert, Tiffany, and Woody all offer some high tech insights and David reminds us that branding solutions don’t have to be high tech to be effective. Ron, Gavin and Stephen provide sales motivation and Teamorr shares some inspiration.

Andrew Erikson presents 7 Ways to Screw Up Your Sales this Holiday Season posted at Website Werx.

Ed Rivas presents Ethical Internet Espionage posted at Ed Rivas.com

Ian Richardson presents What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123

James D Brausch presents Some Competition from the Ranks posted at James Brausch.com

Mark Riffey presents Competitors: How to Easily Keep an Eye on Them. Free. posted at Business is Personal.

Robert Phillips presents More than 123% Increase in Opt-ins posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Tiffany Colter presents Reaching More People With Your Blog posted at Writing Career Coach.

Woody Maxim presents What’ s Making Me Money? Right Now posted at Woody Maxim dot com.

David Kam presents Color Dress Code for Your Business posted at Marketing Deviant.

Ron Ruiz presents One Roll of Stamps= $45000 in Sales posted at The Business Ideas - Making Money Blog.

Gavin Ingham presents What’s your SI (Sales Intensity) rating? posted at Gavin Ingham.com

Stephen Dean presents Copywriting Technique: Blow it Up posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting and Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter

Teamorr presents Mindful Marketing: Marketing without Selling your Soul posted at Create a Thriving Business.

OPERATIONS

Lots of practical advice: C. Worrall shares tips on leasing office space for your employees, while Chris gives advice on determining when to hire virtual employees (and thereby reducing the need for office space!) while Doris shares some personal experiences with hiring the wrong employees.

Mitch and Richard provide complementary articles with Mitch extolling the need for a marketing plan and Richard pointing out that a plan is useless without a regular review.

And lastly, John reminds us what it is we are all here for - building relationships with our customers.

C. Worrall presents Leasing Your Office Space at CFOYourself. C. says “This gives some insight to the leasing newbie on finding, leasing and building out an office space.”

Chris Harris presents When should your small business outsource? posted at New Venture Outsourcing Blog

Doris Chua presents Ranting posted at Home Office Women.

Mitch McDonald presents Marketing Plan: A Business Necessity posted at FYI About

Richard Lee presents Tools of the Successful: Reviewing posted at Richard Lee.com.

John W. Furst presents Key Success Factor: Listen to Your Customers at E-Biz Booster Blog. John says, “Online business or not, you should build a relationship to your customers and listen to them. Who would know any better than your customers about what they want? Use various forms of starting a dialog. Stand out by not treating your customer as an anonymous number. “

MISCELLANEOUS

We finish the carnival with a potpourri of good advice.

Carol Bentley presents Here’s 8 elements for a powerful sales letter… posted at Copywriting Tips for Your Business.

Edith presents 9 Essential Tips to Get the Most out of Trade shows, Conferences and Seminars posted at EdithYeung.com: Dream. Think. Act.

Jim Sansi presents Eliminate Waste, Increase Profit posted at The Kaizen Business

Michelle Cramer presents Communicating Competence at GreatFx Business Cards. Michelle says, “Though your personality has a lot to do with it, people often judge by what they see first rather than what they hear. So it’s important that you portray competence in your business industry not only in your knowledge and performance, but also in how you convey yourself.”

Samir Bharadwaj presents The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships posted at Samir Bharadwaj dot com. Samir says, “Is your website layout or blog template remarkable, and why it should be.”

Tash presents Polite emails at Word Constructions.

Teresa presents Another Business Lesson from a Child at Key Business Partners.

Tracy Coenen presents Starbucks Thinks They Own the Green Circle posted at FRAUDfiles.

Wilson Ng presents SME#4 - Gut Feel posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife. Wilson says, “Many entrepreneurs I know are proud about their gut feel. Many of them have become successful in their chosen industry even as they continue to spurn formal business management practices, like having a proper budget. Many even proudly wear their business illiteracy like a badge of honor. “

Wanda Grindstaff presents Success Through Service, The Most Important Component posted at Creating Abundant Lifestyles.

ArtThailand presents Warehouse Bangkok A Slow Rumble posted at artThailand.

Oh! And I almost forgot - my own submission to this week’s carnival -

Every Day is Take Your Child to Work Day for Work at Home Mom’s

Wow! That’s it for this week! Hope you found some information and some inspiration.

If you want to be part of the Small Business Issues Carnival:

Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Carnival of Small Business Issues using the carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

Next week’s carnival will be back home at the Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog.

Click here if you would be interested in hosting the Carnival

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

One way to manage time more effectively is to delegate whenever possible. That goes for your home life as well as your business life. By delegating tasks at home, you free up time and energy to focus on your business.

I’ve listed some great service ideas below. I am not affiliated with any of these services - some I’ve used while others I haven’t. I’ve included links to get you started thinking of ways you can free up more of your time from doing things you have to do, to focus on things you want to do.

Grocery Delivery - This is a real time, money and health saver. The fee is usually $5 - $9 but the store where I shop runs lots of free specials. You save on the time you would spend driving to the store and doing the shopping and the money you would have spent on extra items not on your list. Your weight might even improve without all those impulse buys!!

Prepared Meals - I love these new services that do all the meal planning, prep and clean-up for you. Again, you make your selections ahead of time on the internet and schedule an appointment.

My husband and I make a “date” out of the evening - in one hour we can prepare 12 entrees in individual containers to be loaded into our own cooler. On the way home we pick up a bottle of wine and a loaf of fresh bread. Then we pop one of our meals into the oven to heat up while we store the rest in the freezer.

Meal prices vary but average about $3.50 - $5.00 per person. Again, there is a considerable savings of shopping, planning, prep and clean-up time to factor into the cost.

House-cleaning - 3 or 4 cleaners arrive on schedule, descend upon your house and leave it sparkling in a mere hour or two. Once a week is perfect, but even once a month heavy-duty cleaning enables you to spend less time on housework and more time on your business. I dislike cleaning so much that I also factor in the saved time spent dreading the tasks as well as the actual cleaning itself. Price varies by region and size of your house - generally $75 - $150 per visit.

Pick-up and delivery Dry Cleaning - Saves on time and your gas. Often a minimal charge or even Free.

Nanny - having someone come to your house to care for your children saves enormous time and energy in getting them ready, into car seats and off to daycare. Not to mention, you don’t have to worry what to do when they are sick. I never had this option when my kids were little, but I sure would want it if I could. Salaries vary by region, as well as by ages and number of children, whether they live in, whether you provide a car, and additional duties they perform. (see costs in link)

Pool Cleaning Service - If you live in the Southwest as I have for the past twenty years, having someone else come and skim the dead leaves and bugs out of the pool and keep the water from turning green can be a real relief - especially if your job involves traveling. ($40 - $70 per month including chemicals)

Handy-man - Take care of all those little things that always need doing - painting, gutter cleaning, fixing leaks, power-washing the house, fixing doorknobs, un-sticking windows, etc. (varies by job)

Yard service - someone to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, shovel the snow. ($25 - $50 depending on the size of the yard and service provided)

Pet Cleanup - someone to clean up after your dog ($24 - $100 per month depending on frequency and number of dogs)

Pet Grooming - give Fido a bath, nail trim and a haircut ($55 - $155 depending on size of dog and extent of matting)

Dog Walking - show off that great haircut with a walk around the neighborhood $15 - $20 depending on the length of the walk

Wow! It would be great to have all that help, wouldn’t it? Even some of it would be helpful. While it all sounds expensive - don’t forget to calculate how much you own time is worth.

If you earn:

$20,000 per year, your time is worth $10 per hour

$40,000 per year, your time is worth $20 per hour

$60,000 per year, your time is worth $30 per hour

$80,000 per year, your time is worth $40 per hour

$100,000 pee year, your time is worth $50 per hour

And don’t forget to network - if you do find a great service, pass the info on to your network, and get the service to reciprocate and refer you to their customers!

Here’s a quick trip through the carnivals this week.

First stop is the Carnival of Network Marketing

There are lots of good articles, but one you sure don’t want to miss is John W. Furst’s Key Success Factor Number One: Speed Of Implementation posted at E-Biz Booster Blog, John reminds us that “Successful business people share a trait. They are quick in putting their ideas into action.”

There’s a lot of creativity going on at the E3 Carnival of Success Principles

Edith Yeung has compiled a collection of podcasts by Warren Buffet and discerned universal business principles. Don’t miss 7 Business Lessons Learned from Watching Warren Buffet posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Lots of practical advice at the Carnival of Work at Home Moms and Dads

Be sure to check out Tony Ellison’s article Working at Home | How-to Guides for running your business from Work.com posted at Blogs @ Shoplet.Com for good ideas to consider when setting up your home office space.

And rounding out this week’s selection is the Carnival of Working at Home on the Internet

iamawahm (as reviewed in my series on work at home moms) presents What do Your Kids Do While You Work at Home? posted at Mom Works at Home.

And remember, the Carnival of Small Business Issues will be hosted by MoreThanWEKnow on Tuesday, November 20th. I already have 40 articles submitted for the carnival and a few more hours left until the deadline - you won’t want to miss it!!

Seth Godin has written a powerful little book about the wisdom of quitting. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)He claims that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people know what to quit and when.

Many activities such as starting a new business can seem exciting at first.  There is visible progress, and a lot to learn – it can be stimulating and engaging. But before too long the progress starts to wane and the struggle starts to increase.

It’s at this point that many people grow discouraged and give up.  

Godin reframes this dip in enthusiasm by pointing out that it is a barrier of entry for your competitors as well as for you.  If you can push through this rough patch and continue to gain momentum and market share, you can eventually become the best in the world, or at least the best in the corner of your world you are trying to conquer.

Godin also makes the important distinction between a dip and a dead-end.  Knowing which is which, and as soon as possible, can mean the difference between success and failure.  

Godin’s little book is packed with more insight than many much longer business volumes. You will find yourself reading and re-reading it, feeling at times exhilarated, frustrated, discouraged and inspired.

In the end, you’ll have a much keener insight into your own business activities – those that should be working and those that never will.  And you’ll never look at quitting in quite the same way again.       

If this week’s series on Work at Home Moms (WAHM) has you wondering whether working at home could be right for you, I recommend the free 7 day e-course for WAHM Wannabe’s presented by I AM A WAHM.  I took the course a few weeks ago and found it to be interesting, enjoyable and insightful. 

Topics include: Myths, Goal setting, Defining your skills, Choosing your direction, and inspirational stories from successful Work at Home Moms.

Have topics about being a Work at Home Mom that you’d like to see discussed in this blog?

Contact me at liz(at)morethanweknow [dot] com or comment below.

And be sure to check out these related articles:

Every Day is Take Your Child to Work Day for Work at Home Moms

Today’s Woman Entrepreneur - Crystal Berney

Getting Your MBA - Mom’s Business Administration Degree

and look for more coming soon!